Administrative/Biographical history: Robert Maxwell MacBrair, M.A., was a Wesleyan missionary in the Gambia. He arrived in the Gambia in c 1836 on a special mission to write a grammar of the Mandingo and Foolah languages and to provide a translation service. He found the climate unfavourable and soon returned to England. With the assistance of an African who had returned with him, MacBrair completed his task of compiling a grammar, The Mandingo Grammar, and a translation of the New Testament. He also wrote Sketches of a Missionary's Travels.

Custodial history:

Immediate source of acquisition: The volume was presented to Edinburgh University Library in 1851 by Robert Maxwell MacBrair.

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE

Scope and content/abstract: Bound autograph manuscript of MacBrair's 'sketch' of the grammar of the Foolah (or Foulah) language spoken by the pastoral Foulahs (or Fulani), the Teucorlars (or Tukulors) and the Laubies of the interior of Western Africa.

Finding aids: Alphabetical Index to Manuscripts held at Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives. The volume is mentioned in the Edinburgh University Library subject checklist (C3) Manuscripts on Africa.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Copies: Edinburgh University Library Special Collections also has a microfilm of the collection (Mic. Dup. 369).

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Compiled by Caroline Brown, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections and Archives.